The innovation concerns a coaster or beer mat. Beer mats are known in practice and are very generally made of a cardboard material. This material consists of organic fibers which, together with a binding agent, are pressed to form a flat entity. The resulting beer mat has open pores and considerable absorptive capacity, which serves to take up spilled beer or condensed water. The (total) top surface of known beer mats forms an absorptive surface.
It goes without saying, that the application of beer mats is not limited to their use as underlays for beer glasses. Rather, beer mats can be used as underlays for any type of drinking vessel with any type of content. Insofar, the present description uses the expression “beer mat” as a synonym for an absorptive “coaster”.
Beer mats are generally formed in a flat way, i.e. they have two main surfaces on their opposing sides. The thickness of a beer mat is typically somewhere in the range of 1 to 5 mm. The peripheral line of a beer mat can generally have any arbitrary form. Besides a circular form or a square shape with rounded edges, polygon forms as well as graphic forms are also known. In the case of graphic forms, objects are schematically imitated, for example, a motor vehicle may be depicted in a silhouette form.
In practice it is known that compact discs are packaged in different ways. Besides packaging them in cassettes made of polymer materials, pouches for CDs are also known, which are made of a paper material and into which a CD can be inserted. Within the scope of the innovation, the term “compact disc” is used to refer to any optical storage medium.
A beer mat containing a CD is known from literature reference EP 1290956 A1. Here the entire surface is covered by a film, with the result that the surface no longer provides any appreciable absorptive capacity.
A postcard with a CD is known from literature reference DE 20021924. Such a postcard does not have an absorptive surface.
Literature reference FR 2762423 reveals a container for a CD with a protective film. An absorptive surface is not provided.
Literature reference DE 201 13 318 U1 describes a beer mat with a CD, whereby the CD is inserted between two layers of beer-mat material and can be retracted from the side. Removing the CD is awkward.
Literature reference U.S. Pat. No. 5,748,608 describes a container for a CD. An absorptive surface is not provided. A similar object can be derived from literature reference DE 20108112 U1.
Literature reference DE 20310242 U1 describes a beer mat with a CD, wherein the CD is completely subjected to the effects of liquids, which has a disturbing effect for obvious reasons.
From literature reference DE 296 11 936 U1 it is known that a CD can be coated with a beer-mat material on the opposite side of the information layer. However, due to their heavy weight and imbalances, such CDs cannot be played on most players. Furthermore, absorbed liquid would be dispersed within the player.
Due to their design, beer mats are collector's items. From other fields it is also known that products are given added value by placing into their packaging other items such as compact discs. In the case of beer mats it appears desirable to make these more attractive to the user.